Wingham tumblers off to Aussie titles

WINGHAM gymnasts Ivan Jarvis and Daniel Stocks will seek a spot in the world championships when they contest the tumbling events at the Australian championships to be held in Melbourne next month.

Ivan and Daniel, both 15, only started competing in the discipline this year, initially under the guidance of visiting Danish coaches. Despite their lack of experience the pair qualified for the State championships. Here they excelled, Ivan winning the under 17 event in what is believed to be a close finish from Daniel.

So they're now hard in training for Melbourne. At very least, they say the championships will be a chance to improve their technique as well as gain more experience in competition. However, Taree Gymaroos coach Sarah Hayes believes the pair are a real chance of qualifying for the world titles, judging on their efforts at State-level.

Ivan and Daniel are long-term members of the Gymaroos - Ivan being identified from a school group.

However, tumbling presented a different challenge.

"We just wanted to try something new,'' Daniel explained.

They're at the Taree PCYC gym four afternoons a week for training in the various forms of gymnastics. They have one session with tumbling with the Taree PCYC coaching staff while they've also had further instruction from visiting coaches.

Gymnastics takes up most of their spare time as they will be part of the group that will head to Helsinki with the Gymaroos for competition next year.